


Oneshots

by wayfinderings



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-09 07:48:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20849984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wayfinderings/pseuds/wayfinderings
Summary: A collection of oneshots starring our favorite characters from the wonderfully crazy world of Kingdom Hearts.





	1. A Strange New World - Sora

Outside of his own head, everything was deadly silent, the surrounding cityscape devoid of even a single lingering pedestrian. Every building stretched towards the stars he knew were there but were simply obscured by the innumerable streetlights surrounding him. It only served to make him feel even further away from his friends than he knew he already was.

It was so different from home…

Inside his head was a completely different story. An incessant _ ringing _ filled the would-have-been void of silence, doing no favors for the massive headache he was developing. So badly he simply wanted to close in on himself, call out for his friends, do _ something _ to get himself out of his current situation that reminded him a bit too much of a still-fresh wound on his heart.

_ Alone… I’m worthless… _

_ Sora, you don’t believe that… I know you don’t. _

The ringing had followed then as well, struggling to fill the void of silence that only confirmed that the worst had come to pass. Darkness had won, and the light had been extinguished; they had lost.

What made it worse was the fact that he seemed to be the only one who truly remembered what happened during their first go-around…

Shaking his head to clear it only pushed away the thoughts that clouded his mind, held the doubt in his heart at bay. The ringing persisted, however, seemingly determined to never go away and simply become a new constant in his life in the absence of everything he’d ever known.

The concrete jungle surrounding him was _ nothing _ like the islands he called home. He had longed to escape from them before his adventure with the Keyblade had begun, and now that he had gotten a taste of adventure - _ taste _ being the understatement of the century considering he had fought in a _ war _ \- all he wanted was to return to the familiar shore, and try to pretend that everything could go back to the way it had been before.

Before Riku had fallen to darkness…

Before keeping the World Order ever mattered...

Before Roxas, Naminé, and Xion had ever existed…

Before he had met Donald and Goofy…

Before he ever heard of Terra, Aqua, and Ven…

Before he had failed his Mark of Mastery exam…

Before he had managed to let every single one of his friends down…

Before this infernal _ ringing _had ever become something he came to expect after certain failures!

Sighing, he ran a hand through his unruly and dampened hair as he stood in the middle of the rain-washed street, trying to ease the oncoming headache and hoping with everything he could that it wouldn’t get any worse. He was having a hard enough time concentrating as it was without having to think through the mental fog that always accompanied his headaches.

Where to start now? Summoning his Keyblade seemed like a good idea to start with. With no idea of what types of enemies could appear, or if any would appear at all, it was simply better to be safe than sorry. Maybe he could explore the area a bit while he was at it.

Holding out his hand to the side, he took a step forward, expecting the blade to leap into his hand the way it always did. What he did not expect was to feel like he had been punched in the gut, stumbling backwards and holding his head in his hands as his headache increased tenfold in a matter of seconds, accompanied by an intensifying of the ringing that was doing him no favors.

Groaning in a mix of exasperation and pain, Sora slowly righted himself, keeping one hand pressed on one of his temples to suppress the ache as much as he could.

“Okay, summoning my Keyblade was apparently a _ bad _idea…” he whispered to himself, treating his throbbing head akin to the way one would treat a sleeping predator that could tear someone apart if roused from its slumber.

So, what now? Well, without his Keyblade, he was practically defenseless, and without knowing if the Heartless could appear on this world - what world _ was _this, anyways - that still needed to be a priority. Unfortunately, there weren’t any people in sight, meaning no shopkeepers, meaning no buying anything. With a second more of thought, that wasn’t the entirety of the problem. He didn’t exactly have any munny on him, given that Donald didn’t quite trust him not to spend it all on every synthesis item available each time they reached a Moogle Shop.

That only really left searching for a makeshift weapon as the only other option, given Sora wasn’t exactly comfortable with the idea of breaking-and-entering, even if it was in the name of self-defense. Unfortunately, the only places that would likely have a makeshift weapon simply lying around were the dark alleyways between buildings, which were also prime candidates for the Heartless to realize from.

Taking a deep breath, both to steady his heartbeat and to allow himself a couple more moments to mentally prepare himself for his excursion into the city, he rocked on his heels, trying his best to smile despite his heavy heart. He may not be on the Gummi Ship, but he knew himself well enough to know he wouldn’t be anywhere near as productive as he needed to be if he let himself get stuck in the funk he was in.

It was Sora against...whatever world it was he had woken up in.

He may have felt alone, but his heart knew otherwise. Despite the distance, his heart was still connected to each of his friends’ with invisible threads that not even the shears of the Fates could sever easily. He had a mission, a sworn duty, to return home to each of them.

Two of them in particular.

_ Riku...Kairi… _

Stepping off into the empty, lamp-lit street, Sora began his search for a weapon and for a way to get back home.

_ I’ll find a way home. I promise. _

The ringing in his ears had long since stopped, leaving the almost-silence of the empty city in its wake, and the unspoken promise between hearts sent ringing out across the worlds.


	2. All Just a Nightmare - Xion

After everything she had been through, there wasn’t much that was able to scare Xion. Given she was a warrior of the Keyblade, her now relatively normal life in Twilight Town was a breeze compared to her days back in the Organization.

That being said, everyone’s still scared of something, and for Xion, that thing just happened to be herself, and what she was.

Every night she had nightmares, and every morning she awoke in a shaking, crying mess before wrapping herself in her sheets to muffle her sobs and keep Roxas, Axel, and Saïx - sorry, Roxas,  _ Lea _ , and  _ Isa _ \- from worrying.

The general premise never changed, even if the cast of characters or locations did. Most nights the dreams started with Xion and her friends watching the Twilight Town sunset from atop the clock tower, though occasionally the setting would be somewhere like Destiny Islands or Radiant Garden. Sometimes she would even find herself somewhere like the Land of Departure, though it was rare, but even rarer was the Keyblade Graveyard.

It was the nights the dream began in the Graveyard that were the scariest. Those were the nights where the nightmares didn’t hold back.

Those were the nights where the dream wasn’t a dream, but a distortion of a memory, what might have been had things played out just a bit differently.

And tonight was one of those nights.

Currently, amid the rocky maze Xehanort had constructed, she stood with the teeth of her Keyblade locked in the identical ones of Sora’s, fighting someone else’s battle against her will just like the perfect puppet she was made to be. It was her least favorite part of the nightmares, knowing she would never have any control over what happened. It was more like someone was showing her a movie in hyper-realistic 3D, where it was all too real and yet entirely fake all at the same time.

“It’s okay! You can stop now!” Sora pleaded, the sincerity of the words that weren’t quite his sparkling in his eyes as they reached a stalemate.

Xion felt her breath catch in her throat. No matter how many times she watched these memories-turned-nightmares play out, she was never prepared for what was coming next. She could only watch as Sora was replaced with the ghostly image of someone else:  _ Roxas _ .

“Xion…” 

Hearing the voice of her closest friend never failed to bring tears to her eyes, even if they were cursed never to spill over. She hated hearing her normally confident and relatively upbeat friend sound so upset and so  _ desperate _ .

_ “Xion!” _

Her eyes widened beneath the hood of her Organization coat, surprised by Roxas’s repetition of her name. That wasn’t what usually followed, and it certainly wasn’t what had actually happened at the Graveyard. Dream Roxas - or Dream Sora, rather - seemed unfazed, his eyes still silently pleading with her, offering silent encouragement in hopes it would help her break the hold Xehanort had over her.

_ “Xion! Come on!” _

There was an echoey quality to the strange new calls Xion hadn’t noticed the first time. It was definitely Roxas’s voice, but it wasn’t the apparition of Roxas standing before her that was calling out to her. Was it Roxas’s heart perhaps, calling out to her own to help her return to herself? It certainly was a possibility…

She was abruptly brought out of her thoughts as she dodged a wheel of fire that had been sent in her direction. It was one of Axel’s chakrams, she noted as the weapon fell to the ground and the flames extinguished themselves before it disappeared in a small cloud of embers and ashes. She turned to face his Somebody as he struggled to prop himself up on his elbows on the dusty floor of the Graveyard.

“Xion! Come on, you’ve got to fight it!” Roxas/Sora pleaded with her, reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder. Without even sparing a glance in his direction, she swung her Keyblade with every ounce of strength she had, dissipating the illusion of Roxas and sending Sora flying back a few feet and almost knocking over Kairi in the process.

“Xion…” Through grit teeth, she heard the plea in Axel’s -  _ Lea’s _ \- voice as she met the gaze of his bright green eyes with her own cold amber ones. Dreading every second, her keyblade was raised as if pulled by invisible strings attached to her person, and she took a heavy step forward to set her stance.

Then she swung.

_ “Wake up, Xion!” _

In an instant, the suddenly too-bright world of the Keyblade Graveyard was plunged into almost total darkness as she shot up into a seated position, gasping and struggling to catch her breath and figure out what exactly was going on before she heard a  _ thud _ come from her right.

“Ouch… Well, at least you’re awake now…”

“Roxas!” Xion exclaimed, before hastily covering her mouth upon realizing it was still the middle of the night. Adjusting her volume, she continued. “What’re you doing here?”

Roxas sucked in a breath through grit teeth as he rubbed his elbow that he was sure would have a decent-sized bruise in the morning before he looked up to Xion.

“I was just checking on you. You looked like you had been having some bad dreams or trouble sleeping for the past couple of days, and I just thought I’d make sure everything was okay. The only reason I woke you up tonight was because things seemed like they were starting to get bad.”

Xion chuckled half-heartedly, wiping away a few tears she felt tracing their way down her cheeks with the sleeve of her nightgown.

“Thanks, Roxas…” she whispered, pulling her knees into her chest.

A stifling silence descended between the two had-been Nobodies as Roxas shifted into a cross-legged position on the floor, trying to choose his next words carefully. He and Xion were both still relatively new to the whole concept of feelings, after all, and Roxas always took care to try and spare Xion’s whenever he could.

“Uh...do you want to...I don’t know...talk about it, or something?” he asked tentatively, not entirely sure that what he was proposing would actually help.

Xion looked over at him, not expecting Roxas to be so invested in wanting to make her feel better. A small, grateful smile worked its way onto her face as she sighed.

“I suppose that would help, wouldn’t it…” she whispered to herself, just loud enough for Roxas to be able to hear as well. Another round of tears over, becoming small, barely visible rivers on her cheeks as Xion turned herself to face him, knees still hugged close. “I’ve been having a lot of nightmares recently...”

Roxas only slowly nodded, having had his own share of nightmares recently as well, though he would never say they had been as bad as he could perceive Xion’s to be.

“...and I’m scared that they’re not entirely nightmares…”

“Huh?” Roxas asked, a bit confused by what she may be implying. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Xion buried her face in her knees, trying to hold back a flood of tears she felt welling up in her eyes, pressing against the floodgates, begging to be set loose and to destroy the facade of composure she had managed to put up.

“Well…” She gave herself a moment to breathe and collect her thoughts one last time. “Most of my nightmares are about the end of my time in the Real Organization…”

Realization dawned on Roxas as Xion’s thought trailed off into nothing.

“About the Graveyard?” he asked tentatively, not wanting to cause Xion to retreat into herself any more than she already was.

“Sort of…” she muttered into the fabric of her nightgown, not making eye contact with Roxas.

Roxas stayed silent, pressing the heels of his palms into the soft carpet of Xion’s bedroom. As much as he wanted to ask questions, he was going to let her say what she wanted and get things out at her own pace.

“It’s more about what I did while Xehanort had control of my heart…” Xion continued, a bit louder, as she brought one of her hands to rest over her heart. “I’m scared there’s still a piece of him in there somewhere…”

She blinked another round of tears out her eyes, no longer caring enough to wipe them away and just letting them drip onto the bedsheets she had curled around herself.

“What if I end up doing something terrible like that again? What if I end up hurting one of you guys… I wouldn’t be able to live with myself!”

“Hey!” Roxas said, a bit louder than he probably should have, pushing himself up onto his feet and making his way over to sit next to Xion on her bed, “Don’t think like that! I’m sure that’s not the case, and even if it is, I know you’re strong enough to fight him off.” He gave her a reassuring smile in hopes to cheer her up, but it was only met by a disbelieving stare.

“But what if I’m not?” Xion asked quietly.

“You  _ are _ ,” Roxas stressed, “But Axel, Isa, and I will be here to help if that does happen to be the case. You don’t have anything to worry about, Xion! Whatever comes, the four of us will face it together!”

It took a minute for Xion to process what Roxas had said, and her face quickly softened and a tired smile replaced the frown, the fatigue of night after night of bad dreams and poor sleep starting to catch up to her. “Thanks, Roxas…”

Roxas returned the smile, before trying to stifle a yawn and looking over to the alarm clock on Xion’s bedside table. Bright red numerals read  _ 2:57 am _ . There was still plenty of time for both of them to get back to bed and assure they were well rested for whatever adventures they would have in town later.

“No problem,” he said, getting back to his feet. “Do you want me to stay for a bit while you try and get back to sleep?”

Xion nodded almost imperceptibly, “If it’s not any trouble…”

“Wouldn’t have offered if I wouldn’t have stayed.” Roxas said, taking a seat against the wall facing Xion’s bed and grabbing a throw blanket she had draped over a chair. He watched as she laid back down, and smiled as her soft breathing rather quickly turned into quiet snoring. She’d have no trouble sleeping for the rest of the night, Roxas was sure of that.

He yawned once more, leaning back and resting his head against the wall. He knew he probably should go back to his own room, but he couldn’t bring himself to get up off the floor. He had gotten a bit too comfortable on Xion’s floor and he was too tired to care. Before long, it became too much work to keep his eyes open, and he too fell into peaceful sleep.


	3. A Curative for Boredom - Sora & Riku

“Riku, I’m bored!”

The aforementioned silverette looked to his side to see his best friend, Sora, sprawled out on the dock, a pout on his face and his fishing rod haphazardly hanging off of the edge. He shook his head, turning his head to look back out at sea.

“You’re going to scare away all the fish, Sora,” he simply said as Sora sat back up, his wild hair swaying in the breeze that had kicked up.

“Please!” Sora whined, “You’re like the fishing  _ master _ ! I don’t think anything could keep the fish away from you.”

“Except for maybe your whining.” Riku retorted, earning a light punch on the arm from Sora. They may still have been kids, but they knew not to get too rough with each other.

“It’s not my fault I’m hungry…” Sora grumbled, placing a hand on his stomach to emphasize his point.

Riku chuckled, turning once again to face his friend. He was one of the few kids on the island the adults felt they could leave with Sora and keep both of them out of trouble. He was what the grown-ups called “responsible” as Sora had recounted to him one time. It had been alright for the first few weeks of their budding friendship, but Sora’s reckless nature and tendency to get into trouble slowly began rubbing off on Riku as well.

So long as there were adults around, Riku was the picture-perfect example of a responsible kid. When it was just him and Sora, however, things tended to work a bit differently.

“Well, if you’re so hungry…” Riku said, reaching over to grab a container sitting next to him before sliding it over to Sora, who jumped back, sticking his tongue out in disgust. “...maybe you should try some of the fish food.”

“That’s gross, Riku!” Sora shouted, pushing the can of worms back towards Riku, who simply laughed.

“How about this then? I get my allowance from my parents tomorrow. If you eat a worm this evening, I’ll use the munny to buy you an ice cream tomorrow from that new stand in town.” Riku grinned triumphantly, seeing Sora gulp nervously. Being practically addicted to sugar at the ripe old age of five years old, it was an offer that would be hard for him to refuse.

Silence hung in the air for a moment as Sora weighed his options, his gaze shifting between the worms and the sky. Sighing in defeat, Riku struggled to hold back a giggle at his friend’s voluntary misfortune as Sora held a fist out to him, pinky extended.

“You’ve gotta promise, though!” Sora demanded.

“Alright, alright! I promise. You better promise to actually do it, though. No backing out.” Riku relented, shaking hands with Sora after they hooked their pinkies together.

Sora swallowed roughly, reaching out to grab the can of worms and nervously removing the lid. He sifted through the dirt, trying to find the smallest worm he could, which was, admittedly, rather difficult, considering they were meant to bait fish. After settling on one that was just longer than his index finger, Riku could see him pale slightly as the worm thrashed around in a panic.

Taking a deep breath, steeling himself, and reminding himself of the reason he was doing this in the first place, he quickly tossed the wiggly pink creature into his mouth, swallowing as fast as he could and struggling not to cough it back up as he felt it squirm in his throat on its way down.

He stuck his tongue out in disgust, shaking his head wildly back and forth as Riku began laughing. He grabbed a water bottle and held it out to Sora, who greedily took it and downed its contents in what seemed like a second. Gasping for air, he placed the now empty bottle onto the dock and plopped back onto his back.

“That ice cream tomorrow better be worth it, Riku…” Sora said, placing his hand on his stomach once more.

Riku laughed again as he reeled in his fishing line, certain no fish would be coming near after the commotion they two of them had caused. “I almost want to dare you to do it again…” he admitted as Sora’s eyes widened in fear.

“No way! You couldn’t pay me a million munny to do that again!” Sora shouted, picking up his own fishing rod. Neither of them had anything to show for an entire afternoon’s worth of fishing, but Sora was okay with that, knowing he’d get some of the Destiny Islands’ best ice cream the next time he met up with Riku.

Standing up, both of the boys took a moment to look out towards the setting sun.

“Well, we’ve gotta be heading back. Don’t want your dad to be mad at us, right?” Riku asked, smiling as Sora nodded in response and gave him a grin of his own.

“I’ll race you!” Sora said, taking off with a head start, Riku not too far behind him and eventually passing him by just a bit.

The two of them could certainly be reckless at times, and sometimes pushed the other to their limits and did things they would never do around anyone else, but there was no denying that there was a connection between the two of them that would keep them together far into the future.


End file.
